Dogs Gnawing On Bone

[ncarter]

I have a question I was hoping someone could help me with. Say you have a small dog and you give it a marrow bone. The dog gnaws away at the head of the bone and makes little impression on it. Is this bad for the dogs teeth? Does it make the teeth wear?

[Nekhbet]

I wouldnt be giving little dogs anything bigger then a lab off cut or a chicken neck/wing. Yup marrow bones do nothing but wear down teeth, especially in littlies

[ncarter]

thankyou sir

[Swizzlestick]

My JRT x has been given a marrow bone about once a fortnight for the last 5-6 years. Not much of the bone left at all when he's finished. I know it has been eaten not buried, as he is in a concrete run when he eats it, so burial is just not possible. He has all his teeth, no wearing at all, and they are as clean as a 6mth old pup. So, no probs at all here.

[doggywoof]

i am no expert but i give my shi tzu cross the same bones i give my retreiver... i thought it was good for the both of them...

[Aly]

i am no expert but i give my shi tzu cross the same bones i give my retreiver... i thought it was good for the both of them...

Aly had a marrow bone yesterday, she has them quite often and her teeth are in great condition.

But they do consitipate her :p

Belinda

[haven]

Feeding your dog(s) weight baring bones, like marrow bones, may or may not cause a problem. Because they are load baring bones they are much stronger than other bones and can actually crack teeth and in some cases split and either be ingested, inhaled, become lodged in your dogs mouth or throat etc. Certainly regular gnawing would wear the teeth, but this effect would occur over a long period of time, it's not something you would see overnight.

Some people might feed their dogs marrow bones on a regular basis and never have a problem, while others may only feed them rarely and have an issue, it's the luck of the draw. The old "I fed my dog one and it never had a problem" is great, but it isn't definitive evidence.

Personally I feed my dogs marrow bones once in a blue moon, ONLY when I am there to supervise. I don't feed lamb shanks at all anymore, as I have had them splinter and become lodged in my dogs mouth on three seperate occasions. Other than that I stick to nice soft bones like poultry, neck, tail and brisket bones. Everything should be fed raw.

[stormie]

I wouldnt be giving little dogs anything bigger then a lab off cut or a chicken neck/wing. Yup marrow bones do nothing but wear down teeth, especially in littlies

;) :p

[cavmad]

Feeding your dog(s) weight baring bones, like marrow bones, may or may not cause a problem. Because they are load baring bones they are much stronger than other bones and can actually crack teeth and in some cases split and either be ingested, inhaled, become lodged in your dogs mouth or throat etc. Certainly regular gnawing would wear the teeth, but this effect would occur over a long period of time, it's not something you would see overnight.

Some people might feed their dogs marrow bones on a regular basis and never have a problem, while others may only feed them rarely and have an issue, it's the luck of the draw. The old "I fed my dog one and it never had a problem" is great, but it isn't definitive evidence.

Personally I feed my dogs marrow bones once in a blue moon, ONLY when I am there to supervise. I don't feed lamb shanks at all anymore, as I have had them splinter and become lodged in my dogs mouth on three seperate occasions. Other than that I stick to nice soft bones like poultry, neck, tail and brisket bones. Everything should be fed raw.

Sugar, I give my two a lamb shank probably every two weeks, usually on the weekend. Other than that they get brisket bones and chicken necks....that crunching makes my skin crawl though! I really didn't know that raw lamb shanks could splinter though. Sounds like you have good reason not to give them Haven...and you have big dogs. Certainly makes me think twice. I suppose its all about trial and error. I gave a pigs ear and nearly had a heart attack when I had to pry a big gluey mess out from the roof of Stellas mouth. Never again.

[haven]

Yeah that's the thing, it might never happen to you, it might never happen to me again either but three times is just too much and I'm unwilling to risk it again. Perhaps because my dogs are larger they are able to crush the bone more effectively, whereas your dogs wouldn't be able to :p

What happend on two occasions was that the bone split in half lengthways and one half became lodged over my dogs teeth on one side of the jaw, so the bone was touching the gumline in front of and behind the teeth if that makes sense. The third time a piece splintered off and became lodged between her teeth in the roof of her mouth from right to left ;)

They weren't too hard to remove, but I'm so glad that I've always made a point of supervising them with bones!

[rose of tralee]

Our Dal Liddie ( RIP last July aged rising 14) had frequent bones in the 10 years we had her. Her front teeth were worn down to the gum line, and her molars weren't a lot of use either. I was never a great fan of marrow bones even before the reasons were explained to me on a yahoo group but she was exposed to them occasionally and would have worked hard on them.

I presume she had too many brisket bones up until a couple of years ago, possibly ones that had too much rib attached. Sorry, old girl! I am much more into less dense stuff these days with Lola: frames, flaps, pig's heads and feet, body parts of chook etc

I think the answer to the OP's question is, Yes, quite likely.